NEW TRAGEDY, OLD MEMORIES...
Like everyone else, I was so very sorry - and not a little angry - at the senseless murder of PC Andrew Harper just the other day and it goes without saying that mine and everyone else`s sympathies go out towards his young widow, his wider family and his friends.
Can I also mention then horrific rail crash that happened in 2004 when seven people, including the train driver, were killed.
Now we often hear people say, when tragedy strikes, that "it`s not the sort of thing that happens around here." But surely things like the two I have mentioned above really should not happen in a peaceful, out-of-the-way hamlet deep in the Berkshire countryside. But sadly both occurred at Ufton Nervet - the rail crash at the level crossing over Ufton Lane and PC Harper`s murder at the junction of Ufton Lane with the A4 Bath Road.
Many, many years ago my grandparents on my father`s side of the family had a bakery business where bread was prepared and baked on an old wood oven - the stacks of wood (bavins) would be put int the oven, set alight and then the ashes would be removed for the bread to be put in to bake. The bakery was at Padworth Common just a couple of miles from Ufton and the bread and other provisions from the adjoining family shop were delivered by a van around the local villages not only Ufton but also Padworth itself, Silchester, Burghfield and Mortimer.
During school holidays I used to be dispatched to stay with my grandparents and I used to go on the delivery rounds and help out. My uncle Les would do the deliveries around Silchester and Ufton and my aunt would do the others. So I know those villages so well and the recent news surrounding Ufton brought back memories of being on the bread van, driving up Ufton Lane, over the level crossing, over the Kennet bridge and stopping at the scene you see above. The nice house on the left in the picture above was in those days a pub - the Dog and Partridge - where my uncle used to rest awhile whilst transactions took place involving bread and liquid refreshment.
A little further up the road there was Fred Monger`s cottage - he was an old gamekeeper and used to work for the nearby Elizabethan Ufton Court and by the time we had delivered the bread there, we knew that the delivery round was just about finished for another day.
And all those years ago the village of Ufton was always quiet, peaceful, steeped in the ways of rural life - the sort of place where nothing untoward ever happened. Or at least it used to be.
Can I also mention then horrific rail crash that happened in 2004 when seven people, including the train driver, were killed.
Now we often hear people say, when tragedy strikes, that "it`s not the sort of thing that happens around here." But surely things like the two I have mentioned above really should not happen in a peaceful, out-of-the-way hamlet deep in the Berkshire countryside. But sadly both occurred at Ufton Nervet - the rail crash at the level crossing over Ufton Lane and PC Harper`s murder at the junction of Ufton Lane with the A4 Bath Road.
Many, many years ago my grandparents on my father`s side of the family had a bakery business where bread was prepared and baked on an old wood oven - the stacks of wood (bavins) would be put int the oven, set alight and then the ashes would be removed for the bread to be put in to bake. The bakery was at Padworth Common just a couple of miles from Ufton and the bread and other provisions from the adjoining family shop were delivered by a van around the local villages not only Ufton but also Padworth itself, Silchester, Burghfield and Mortimer.
During school holidays I used to be dispatched to stay with my grandparents and I used to go on the delivery rounds and help out. My uncle Les would do the deliveries around Silchester and Ufton and my aunt would do the others. So I know those villages so well and the recent news surrounding Ufton brought back memories of being on the bread van, driving up Ufton Lane, over the level crossing, over the Kennet bridge and stopping at the scene you see above. The nice house on the left in the picture above was in those days a pub - the Dog and Partridge - where my uncle used to rest awhile whilst transactions took place involving bread and liquid refreshment.
A little further up the road there was Fred Monger`s cottage - he was an old gamekeeper and used to work for the nearby Elizabethan Ufton Court and by the time we had delivered the bread there, we knew that the delivery round was just about finished for another day.
And all those years ago the village of Ufton was always quiet, peaceful, steeped in the ways of rural life - the sort of place where nothing untoward ever happened. Or at least it used to be.
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